An Air Force commander is bringing to light concerns the government has over a growing cyber offense in Iran, promising that the Defense Department will soon add 1,000 people to the Air Force’s “cyber” department.

Researchers at security firms Kaspersky Lab and Crysys Lab released tools today to detect if your computer is infected by the Gauss virus, a piece of malware that focuses on stealing bank account login credentials.

Thirty percent of the world’s nuclear power is produced in the United States at 104 reactors concentrated on the Eastern seaboard. What if the Flame and Stuxnet viruses that wreaked havoc on Iran’s nuclear efforts were repurposed by unfriendly nations to attack the U.S.?

It’s been rumored for some time that the Stuxnet virus, which attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities in 2010 before escaping and wreaking havoc on the public Web, was a joint effort between the U.S. and Israel. But, aside from security firm reports, their connection was mostly speculation — until today.

Stuxnet has been called the most sophisticated computer worm ever created. We know there are siblings to the malware which took down Iran’s nuclear centrifuges, but now Kaspersky labs is saying there may be up to four other worms in the family tree.

One Christmas Eve, security consultant John Strauchs received a call about a new maximum security system he’d installed in a US prison. “All the doors popped open on death row,” said the person on the other end.

Stuxnet, the computer worm that spread among industrial machinery, is commonly believed to have been created by Israeli and American intelligence forces to take down the nuclear weapons machinery in Iran.

Confirming months-long suspicions, Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad admitted today that his country’s uranium enrichment centrifuges had been affected by a malicious computer worm. Western Diplomats said last week that the Stuxnet virus had damaged Iran’s centrifuges, which could be used to make fuel for nuclear power or nuclear weapons.